Performing Shakespeare

Budding actors take part in theater workshop at ND's DeBartolo Center.

Budding actors take part in theater workshop at ND's DeBartolo Center.

January 31, 2008|JUDY BRADFORD Tribune Correspondent

They took their shoes off so they could feel "more grounded.'' They touched the walls of the room, and made big shapes and little shapes and "ugly" shapes with their bodies. After their warm-up, about 25 area students, mostly from high school, then performed a scene from "The Taming of the Shrew." "I got so much out of today,'' said Nicole Tompkins, 16, a junior at St. Joseph's High School and a budding actress. "All that physical stuff they made us do, and the focus exercises were very good. I think your acting comes out completely different because of those." The Saturday workshop, held in the lower level of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center at the University of Notre Dame, was conducted by the five professional actors who make up Actors From the London Stage (AFTLS), in residence at the university. The high school students had already attended a performance of the play by AFTLS. But the workshop helped them to better understand the way that Shakespeare is performed. If you've ever seen the Bard performed, you know that when the actors are very good with gestures, body stance and voice control, they could be saying "blah, blah, blah" and you'd still have a good understanding of what's going on. Gestures and other physical expressions are also important in Shakespearean plays simply because of their complexity. There are so many characters to keep track of. "Who are you talking to? What are you talking about? What are you feeling toward that person?" the pros asked the students as they rehearsed an opening scene of the Shrew. A warm-up exercise, on learning to trust, turned out to be a big hit with the students: They were asked to sway back and forth with their eyes shut and let other students catch them before they hit the ground. "Trust is always something you can work on,'' said Abby Diamond, 15, a freshman at Adams High School. "And when you're working with a new person on stage, you have to get to know them." Victor Gardener, an AFTLS actor who played Petruccio, Christopher Sly and Curtis in the Shrew, said trust is important for two reasons: "The stage can be a dangerous place," he said, and because actors are asked to do "some very emotional scenes.'' Gardener said the professional actors want to hold more Shakespeare workshops for local students interested in the theater. They won't have to look very far for participants. Many of the students who took part in the workshop also participate in ShakeScenes, where local students focus on learning and performing scenes from Shakespeare.